t.w.i.m.: 5/16-5/22

Full Albums:

• Adele, 21
• Driver F, Chase the White Whale
• Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
• Raekwon, Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang
• Rage Against the Machine, The Battle of Los Angeles
• The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers

Random Excellence:

• Raekwon, “Broken Safety”
• Jay-Z, “Public Service Announcement”
• Earth Wind & Fire, “September”
• Cut Copy, “Take Me Over”
• Driver F, “Remember When That Train Wrecked Our Lifestyle?”

Songs of the Week:

• Robyn, “Dancing on My Own”
• Kelly Clarkson, “Walk Away”
• Kate Nash, “Shit Song”
• Empire of the Sun, “Walking on a Dream”
• Adele, “I’ll Be Waiting”

Reviews:

Stop looking at me, I’m naked!

Comment:

Once again, I spent a lot of time catching up on podcasts. The albums I listened to, I listened to while at work instead of during my commute time. These podcasts appear to take a hefty chunk of my music time away from me. It’s a mixed relationship for me though, because they’re frequently hilarious. Making a decision between laughter and music seems a very rough decision I don’t every want to have to really make.

t.w.i.m.: 5/9-5/15

Full Albums:

• Audioslave, Audioslave
• Big K.R.I.T., K.R.I.T. Wuz Here
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Beat the Devil’s Tattoo
• Buddy Guy, Sweet Tea
• The Cure, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
• Driver F, Chase the White Whale
• The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America
• Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti
• Madonna, Hard Candy (Deluxe Edition)¹
• Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday
• Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, The Main Ingredient
• The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main St. (Deluxe Edition)
  

Random Excellence:

• Usher, “Hey Daddy”
• Pearl Jam, “Deep”
• Lupe Fiasco, “The Show Goes On”
• Kings of Leon, “Knocked Up”
• Fall Out Boy, “w.a.m.s.”

Songs of the Week:

• The Rolling Stones, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and “Bitch”
• Spoon, “I Turn my Camera On”
• Broken Bells, “The Ghost Inside”
• Robyn, “Stars 4-ever”

Reviews:

1. Holy hell, this is just terrible.

Comment:

Here I am, trying to get my schedule back in order and this is incredibly late. I didn’t spend any time on a computer this weekend because I went to my sister’s graduation and didn’t get back until Midnight on Tuesday. I also spent a lot of time catching up on podcasts, so my adventures in music are probably a lot lighter than usual. That WTF podcast with Marc Maron is just so intense. Sometimes it’s heartbreaking and sometimes it’s hilarious and oftentimes it’s both. Kind of makes me glad I never had the urge to do stand up professionally. I just like going on stage sometimes, I guess. I’ve always loved making people laugh, but I think I chose to keep writing because it came to me much more easily than trying to find a stage all the time.

t.w.i.m.: 5/2-5/6

Full Albums:

• Childish Gambino, E.P.¹
• The Clash, Essential Clash
• The Gaslight Anthem, American Slang
• James Pants, Welcome
• Jay-Z, Hard Knock Life, Vol. 2
• Metric, Fantasies
• Miike Snow, Miike Snow
• The Police, Reggatta de Blanc and Zenyatta Mondatta
• The Postal Service, Give Up
• The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers²
• Sleigh Bells, Treats
• Spoon, Gimme Fiction
• The Strokes, Angles
• The-Dream, Love King
• TV on the Radio, 9 Types of Light
• The Weeknd, House of Balloons

Random Excellence:

• Wilco, “Walken”
• Crash Kings, “1985”
• Kings of Leon, “Be Somebody”
• Nine Inch Nails, “Beginning of the End”
• Interpol, “Rest My Chemistry”

Songs of the Week:

• Earth, Wind & Fire, “September”
• Spoon, “Don’t You Evah”
• The Rolling Stones, “Bitch”
• MGMT, “Electric Feel”
• Ghostsface Killah, “Ghetto”

Reviews:

1. I was pleasantly surprised both by this EP and by the fact that I’ve had it on my iPod for so long and only just listened to it. I get the impression he’s one of those artists who performs best when focused, when only recording a few songs. And yes, I’m aware I called him an artist. Weird, right? I guess that dude from Community’s a rapper now.

2. I was pretty disappointed with this one overall, though “Can You Hear Me Knockin'” and “Bitch” are incredible. I love those songs now and you can never take that from me.

Comment:

I’ve been trying to do this new thing where I’ll take care of myself and it seems to be relatively detrimental for certain aspects of my life like my blog or my wallet. I usually start a t.w.i.m. draft around 11PM on Sunday because the whole point of t.w.i.m. is to bring you the music I listened to during the week and I always listen to music while writing. But it’s that race against the clock that always gets the better of me because it only rarely takes an hour and I even more rarely start on time. So the plan this week was to type up all the albums and songs and then type the reviews and comment on Monday morning, but I’ve also started going to the gym in the mornings so I have less time to drink coffee and write or watch Hulu. Then the plan was, maybe if I outpaced work again, to write it there. Or after the nap I would have to take from staying up late with the first draft of t.w.i.m. And then I forgot, so here we are three days late.

Writing while exhausted is sometimes next to impossible, so I’m going to keep working on this. My hope is to find a way to get it done on time, still have a social life and still not show up to work with bags under my eyes. I’m pretty sure my liver can only take so much coffee and the amount I’m drinking these days is probably pushing the limit. No big deal, though, I’m sure I, like you pining away for another t.w.i.m., can be patient. Which is to say, thanks for being patient, sorry I was late. My my brought me a note: see above.

t.w.i.m.: 4/25-5/1

Full Albums:

• The Beastie Boys, Hot Sauce Committee, Part II¹
• Booker T. & The MG’s, Green Onions
• Bruce Springsteen, Greatest Hits
• Buddy Guy, Sweet Tea
• Driver F, Chase the White Whale
• Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
• Foo Fighters, Wasting Light
• GZA, Pro Tools
• James Pants, Welcome
• Janelle Monae, The ArchAndroid²
• M83, Saturdays = Youth
• Money Making Jam Boys, The Prestige
• Robyn, Body Talk
• The Weeknd, House of Balloons³

Random Excellence:

• Snoop Dogg, “Gangsta Luv (Mayer Hawthorne G-Mix)”
• Senses Fail, “Handguns and Second Chances”
• The Cure, “Strange Attraction”
• Erykah Badu, “Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long”
• Interpol, “Success”
• Rage Against the Machine, “Testify”
• Miike Snow, “Black & Blue”

Songs of the Week:

• Outkast, “Skew It on the Bar-B”
• Massive Attack, “Angel”
• Katy Perry, “Teenage Dream”
• Genesis vs. Katy Perry, “Invisible Gurls”
• Broken Bells, “The Ghost Inside”

Reviews:

1. Hell yes. “Funkey Donkey,” “Crazy Ass Shit” and “Too Many Rappers” are definitely my favorite songs, but that’s not saying too much because this whole album’s pretty freakin’ amazing.

2. Truly a beautiful album. That girl can really sing.

3. Get it? House of Balloons? Because everyone in the songs are high? But seriously, this album’s kind of amazing. If you like R&B, you like this album. Sometimes the whole album feels like “Fancy” by The-Dream, but without the incredible outro. It’s not a bad thing, just saying that they sound similar, though they’re obviously different.

Comment:

Of course I’m sorry it’s late, but I think we all knew this wasn’t going to get published on time, right? My birthday was Wednesday and Barack released his birth certificate. Thursday and Friday were my birthday as well, then Saturday came and Barack straight up mopped the floor with Trump’s wig while promising he had better things to be doing. Also, it was my birthday. Sunday came and it turns out the better thing he was doing was accomplishing the mission and discovering Osama bin Laden. Sunday was not my birthday but last night did involve revelry to celebrate one of my friend’s birthdays (which was actually on Sunday).